Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Imagine millions of people vanishing in a split second. How would survivors cope with not knowing what happened to their friends, relatives, children, spouses? Tom Perrotta’s 2011 novel “The Leftovers” is a remarkable portrait of the emotional toll inflicted by the sudden disappearance of 2% of the world’s population. Some of the subtlety of the book is missing from the first episode of HBO’s adaptation, which airs at 10 tonight, but the compelling structure remains.

Perrotta and “Lost” leader Damon Lindelof have put a harsher, even more morose spin on the story of ordinary suburbanites struggling to adjust to life three years after the mass disappearance. Justin Theroux is grimly relatable as a police chief with a teen daughter (Margaret Qualley) who barely speaks to him and a college-age son (Chris Zylka) who has fallen under the sway of a charismatic figure (Paterson Joseph). Amy Brenneman speaks volumes with her expressions as a woman who joins a cult called the Guilty Remnant that insists its followers wear only white, stay mute and chain-smoke cigarettes. And yes, that’s Liv Tyler as an anxious bride-to-be who can’t seem to focus on planning her wedding under the new normal.

Some of the touches —what’s with the stray dog? — seem perilously close to the sort of disturbing touches that “Lost” used to dole out randomly. Yet overall, “The Leftovers” has the potential to stand out in a TV landscape littered with zombies, pandemics and unexplained resurrections.